On Mon, 27 Oct 2003, Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:

> > 3. runspercycle. The exact technical function is unclear, I presume it's
> >    needed to map dumpcycle to a tape count.
> 
> I think the reason for runspercycle (and why it's necessary) is quite 
> obvious.

Undocumented though.

> Amanda needs to know how much tape it has (total, in a 
> dumpcycle) with which to make all the required backups.  The *only* way to 
> know that is to know how many times it will be run in a cycle 
> (runspercycle) and multiply that by the tape length.

That's what "map dumpcycle" (which is in days and has nothing to do with
tapes in the firstplace) "to tape count" meant.

> > 4. Amanda defaults runspercycle to dumpcycle, assuming daily backups are
> >    made, rather than looking at the tapeinfo. Why that?
> 
> By tapeinfo, do you mean tapecycle?  If so, then I see part of the problem 

The /etc/amanda/$CONFIG/tapelist file actually.

> -- you're putting too much importance on tapecycle.  Tapecycle can mean 
> any number of things.  On my archival setup (run once every 6 weeks, level 
> 0s of everything), tapecycle is set to an absurdly high number (10000).  
> That way amanda always wants a new tape.  Even on my daily setup, it's set 
> to 12*runspercycle, so that I have a long daily history.  In short, amanda 
> can make no conclusions about anything based on tapecycle.

OK, understood.